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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Cold Winter Night

January, February, and March are the deepest, darkest months of life here in the frozen north, so Alaskans have come up with all kinds of fun activities and festivals to help stave off cabin fever and major bouts of depression.

Florida may have its fancy sand sculpture competitions and Wisconsinites may carve life-sized replicas of the Green Bay Packers out of cheese—okay, I don't know if that's true, but it's what I would do if I lived in Wisconsin—but Alaskans sure know how to make a block of ice look pretty.

Last night, we all bundled up and trudged through these trees to look at this year's batch of ice sculptures.

The girls' favorite was this pair of dogs, which I suspect were keeping an eye out for a mad beagle named Daisy who might bark loudly at them.

I was more partial to the abstract sculptures.

We all appreciated this patriotic display.

The ice sculptures border a small skating rink,

so my husband and 9-year-old daughter laced up

and chased each other through the night.

I did some chasing of my own . . . after my 3-year old twin daughters, who were determined to run under the ropes "protecting" each display and climb onto the ice sculptures, while screaming "Look at me!"